I’ve been covering media and TV for the last 10 years, largely for the Daily Telegraph newspaper in London. As well as writing about the media industry, I keep a close eye on what’s actually being broadcast – I write about each week’s TV for Britain’s free-to-air satellite distributor, Freesat. I spent seven years on staff at the Telegraph, during which I both edited the TV pages and, later, moved to the newsroom, where I reported on the industry as Assistant Editor (Media). Since going freelance in 2011, I still write frequently for the Telegraph, as well as being a regular media pundit on TV and radio. I did five years on the advisory committee for the Edinburgh TV Festival, and I sit on awards juries for the Royal Television Society and Bafta. Journalism is my second career: in the 1990s, I was a litigation lawyer for firms including Linklaters and Debevoise & Plimpton.

21st Century Fox: What James Murdoch's Promotion Means For BSkyB

Today’s announcements by 21st Century FoxFox and News CorpNews Corp, of new jobs for Rupert Murdoch’s two sons, have widely been seen as favouring Lachlan Murdoch (the elder, prodigal son) over James Murdoch (the younger, loyal son). And, although no wrongdoing was ever proven against James personally, it’s hard not to wonder if the UK phone-hacking scandal is still harming his chances in the race to succeed Murdoch senior. For the Murdochs’ UK interests – principally in BSkyB, the satellite broadcaster – the tea-leaves are even harder to read.

Before the phone-hacking scandal blew up, James was a confident – even bullish – leader of the Murdoch empire’s newspaper business in the UK. Then, in July 2011, came the allegation that journalists at a Murdoch paper in the UK (the News of the World) had illegally hacked into the mobile-phone voicemail of a missing schoolgirl, Milly Dowler.

James Murdoch, the new co-chief operating officer of 21st Century Fox, in 2008 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A Parliamentary investigating committee took aim at the Murdochs generally, and at James in particular. (One MP colourfully accused him of operating a Mafia-style code of silence, or ‘omerta’, at the Murdochs’ UK newspapers.) There was a public inquiry, at which James gave evidence. And now some of the people who used to be James’s most senior lieutenants – including former newspaper editor Rebekah Brooks – are on criminal trial.

Most significantly for News Corp’s actual business in the UK, the phone hacking scandal scuppered its bid to buy all of the satellite broadcaster BSkyB (in which the Murdoch empire currently controls a 39.1 per cent stake). Indeed the UK’s broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, even launched an inquiry into whether BSkyB remained a ‘fit and proper person’ to hold a broadcasting licence. James Murdoch, who was BSkyB’s chairman when that inquiry was launched, was criticised by Ofcom’s final statement on the matter – which ruled in favour of BSkyB, but said that James personally ‘repeatedly fell short of the exercise of responsibility to be expected of him as CEO and chairman’.

Today, the Murdoch share in BSkyB is held through the demerged 21st Century Fox – the company at which James has today been anointed co-chief operating officer. And, although the UK market is far from being 21st Century Fox’s biggest concern, there have been persistent rumours in the last couple of months that the Murdochs might be planning to renew their bid to take over all of BSkyB. In the UK, where phone hacking remains on the news agenda, James’s reinforced presence at the top of Fox adds spice to that prospect.

It would certainly help BSkyB, which is Britain’s biggest media company, for its future ownership to be resolved. The company’s business model relies on satellite-TV subscriptions, driven by exclusive coverage of English Premier League soccer. Now that BT, the deep-pocketed phone company, has also launched a pay-TV Premier League offering, BSkyB’s core business is under threat like never before.

If the Murdochs were to reinvigorate their interest in BSkyB, or indeed do a volte-face and sell out completely, BSkyB’s management could at least hope for a clear steer on their business plan going forward. Sadly for BSkyB, today’s elevations of two Murdoch sons – one with unfortunate form in the UK, one without – give no clear indication either way.

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